2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Studies on photochemical control of macrostructure of polymers for automatic light and temperature modulators

Research Project

Project/Area Number	12650887
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	高分子構造・物性(含繊維)
Research Institution	Kumamoto University
Principal Investigator	KURIHARA Seiji Kumamoto University, FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ASSOCIATE, PROF., 工学部, 助教授 (50225265)
Project Period (FY)	2000 – 2001
Keywords	optical switching / cholesteric liquid crystals / chiral azobetaene / polymer liquid cystals / composite materials / chirality / 複合材料 / キラリティー
Research Abstract	1. Various azobenzene molecules (Azo) having chiral groups were prepared. Cholesteic phase was induced by doping the chiral azobenzene molecules. The twisting power of Azo molecules was changed by ultraviolet and visible light irradiation to cause trans-cis photoisomerization. The twisting power of trans-Azo was found to be larger than that of cis-Azo. 2. Three types of switching was achieved by the use of the induced cholesteric liquid crystals. One is a shift of a selective reflection. Second is an inversion of the chiral sense, and third was a switching between the cholesteric phase and a nematic phase. 3. Composite of polymer and the induced cholesteric liquid crystals was also found to / show the photochemical switchings. In addition, the composite materials showed good memory property more than the cholesteric materials without polymer.

(2 results)